Spring Birds with Winter Temps
Sunday 10 May 2015
51 °F
Today, Sunday, May 14, I led another Oak Park Bird Walk. The temperatures hovered in the lower to mid 40's during the walk and misty rain showers persisted throughout the morning, resulting in only five birders showing up for the walk. Although the weather conditions were miserable, some quality birds were seen, 35 species in total. Again, the highlight of the walk was seeing 13 species of warblers (I would add a CAPE MAY WARBLER later to have a total of 14 warbler species for the day!).
Some noteworthy non-pictured birds were GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH, BAY-BREASTED & WILSON'S WARBLERS.
SWAINSON'S THRUSH. Later, my dad would hear the beautiful, rising, bubbly song of this bird species from our front yard.
VEERY, a thrush species I have identified in Oak Park very few times before:
Cooperative male BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER that perched a few feet above the group's heads for this photo:
2 male ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAKS:
Male BAY-BREASTED WARBLER, the most uncommon warbler species today:
Bird-of-the-day to the male BAY-BREASTED WARBLER and runners-up to the VEERY and male BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER. The full species list for the bird walk is found below.
35 species:
Ring-billed Gull 2
Mourning Dove 2
Downy Woodpecker 2
Warbling Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 1
American Crow 1
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Veery 2
Gray-cheeked Thrush 1
Swainson's Thrush 5
American Robin 15
Gray Catbird 1
European Starling 2
Northern Waterthrush 1
Black-and-white Warbler 3
Tennessee Warbler 5
Nashville Warbler 5
American Redstart 3
Northern Parula 1
Bay-breasted Warbler 1
Blackburnian Warbler 1
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Black-throated Green Warbler 2
Wilson's Warbler 1
White-throated Sparrow 2
White-crowned Sparrow 7
Northern Cardinal 2
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 3
Indigo Bunting 1
Baltimore Oriole 1
House Finch 2
American Goldfinch 1
House Sparrow 10
Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 753 Species (no life birds today)
Hi Henry! You are an amazing birder and photographer. My unusual species for this week is a yellow-bellied flycatcher in my back yard, identified by voice mainly. Those little flycatchers can be hard to identify! I hope to meet you someday. All the best, Liz
by Liz Cifani